In the Dead Heart of Jesus

I think I've mentioned before an extraordinary collection of poetry by a monk of Holy Ghost Monastery in Conyers, Georgia. I can't remember the title for some reason, but it's truly amazing most of all for its vision ... consistent with Von Balthasar ... of all of life being Holy Saturday. The Crucifixion of Our Lord is behind us; the Resurrection is before us; in between we lay waiting in the Tomb for Easter.

And of course in the Tomb was the God-Man Jesus Who was Dead. He whose Sacred Heart beat and bled for all mankind lay dead. That is, even His Sacred Heart, in His Sacred Humanity, was Dead.

In the poem, there is the contemplation of the Body of Christ, the Body of the Dead Jesus as His Church in the Tomb.

I too am in This Church, immersed in the Tomb. I crawl with sobs and wails and incomprehension into the Dead Heart of Jesus, and there find a comfort beyond all words and understanding.

As Church we are sometimes called an Easter People. Fair enough. But for me, I'm afraid, the Church as a Holy Saturday People is an image (Ikon) of the Dead Christ that I find of far, far, far greater comfort.

Here in the Dead Heart of Jesus there is no lying, no fakery, no attempts to put a pretty face on things. Death is Death, and this is the Place of the Dead. And if the Place of the Dead, it is the Place in which my dear departed mother is in repose as well, awaiting the Resurrection, God willing.

In the Dead Heart of Jesus is all my hope, all my fear, all my faith, and love and everything that means anything or has meant anything to me. Whatever, and whoever, finds the Dead Heart of Jesus may, by God's Grace, find the Glorified Heart of Jesus in the Resurrection. But before then ... we wait in the Dead Heart of Jesus, we wait for the perfect Dawn that is Christ Risen.

And here is my dear departed Mother. And all the angels and saints

Here in the Dead Heart of Jesus on this Greyest of Grey days, Holy Saturday.

Nothing else matters really.

Nothing.

You alone Lord Jesus. You alone.

Here in the Dead Heart of Jesus.

Charles Delacroix
Friday of the 27th Week of Ordinary Time